DoD Boosts VMI Arabic Program

By John

LEXINGTON, Va., May 19, 2008 – Selected cadets at Virginia Military Institute will benefit from a more robust Arabic language program, and the college will become a model for how other schools can teach the language, thanks to a grant award announced last week.

The Virginia Military Institute has received a three-year, $665,000 grant from Department of Defense (DoD) to enhance its Arabic studies program and provide opportunities for cadets to study the language and culture abroad. It is one of eight schools to receive funding through the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) Language and Culture Project.

The project is designed to provide ROTC students with the opportunity to study languages and cultures of world regions critical to U.S. national security. It is sponsored by the DOD’s National Security Education Program, a federal initiative designed to build a broader and more qualified pool of U.S. citizens with foreign language and international skills.

Over half a mil, wow. Some of our best cadets minored in Arabic (not me, I washed out. Hola, Espanol). Our man Charlie was one of em.

There are plenty of schools who offer Arabic as a language. Very few, however, merged the language with security/international/political studies. VMI has spent the better part of a decade fusing the two together. So, it seems like a no-brainer for the DoD to send its money to the Institute's waiting and capable hands.

Update: I was talking w/Charlie the other day, and he mentioned that every cadet in his graduating class who minored in Arabic went on to receive a commission in one of the four branches. Sounds like a wise way for the DoD to spend their money, which I'm pretty sure is a first.

May 23, 2008 11:52 AM VMI